Payment cards such as credit or debit cards are ubiquitous. For decades, such cards have included a magnetic stripe on which the relevant account number is stored. To consummate a purchase transaction with such a card, the card is swiped through a magnetic stripe reader that is part of a point of sale (POS) terminal. The reader reads the account number from the magnetic stripe. The account number is then used to route a transaction authorization request that is initiated by the POS terminal. The authorization request is routed from the merchant's acquiring financial institution (“acquirer”) to a server computer operated by or on behalf of the issuer of the payment account. The issuer's server computer provides a response to the authorization request. If the response indicates that the issuer has authorized the transaction, the transaction is consummated at the point of sale. Later the transaction is cleared for settlement via the acquirer and the issuer.
More recently, cards that incorporate an integrated circuit (IC) have been utilized as payment cards. One well known IC payment card standard is referred to as “EMV”, and utilizes an IC card (also known as a “smart card”) that is interfaced to a POS terminal via contacts on the IC card. During a purchase transaction, the payment card account number and other information may be uploaded from the IC payment card to the POS terminal via the IC card contacts and a contact card reader that is included in the POS terminal. Authorization and clearing may then proceed in substantially the same manner as for a transaction initiated with a mag stripe payment card (putting aside additional security measures that may be implemented by using the processing capabilities of the IC payment card and chip data in the clearing).
In other IC payment card systems, the exchange of information between the card and the POS terminal proceeds via wireless RF (radio frequency) communications. These wireless communication payment cards are sometimes referred to as “contactless” payment cards. One example of a contactless payment card standard is referred to in the United States by the brand name “PayPass” and was established by MasterCard International Incorporated, the assignee hereof.
In addition to debit and credit IC payment cards, there are also so-called “pre-authorized” cards. These cards are not necessarily linked to a credit card account or to a bank account from which debits are made via the payment card system. Rather, pre-authorized cards are loaded (“topped-up”) from time to time with monetary value, and the cards are used to make purchases based on deductions from the value stored in the cards. The resulting purchase transactions may be referred to as “off-line purchase transactions” in the sense that the POS terminal does not request an on-line authorization from the card issuer computer before the purchase transaction is consummated. Merchants that accept pre-authorized cards may submit purchases transactions for subsequent clearing against a “shadow account” for the pre-authorized card via the clearing system operated by the payment card system.
When it is necessary to top-up a pre-authorized card, the card may be interfaced to a terminal or kiosk, typically via a contact interface. The user may interact with the terminal to obtain authorization from a central server to have more monetary value loaded into the pre-authorized card.
In contradistinction to “off-line” purchase transactions, as described in the previous paragraph, conventional payment system purchase transactions that require real-time online communication with the account issuer—for the purpose of authorization or (in a “one message” system) for immediate charge against the customer's account—may be referred to as “online purchase transactions”.
To the extent that a payment device is used for off-line, pre-authorized purchase transactions, it in effect functionally mimics a pre-paid or stored value card, at least in terms of what occurs at the point of sale.
The present inventors now disclose herein certain techniques that may facilitate operation of a payment system that supports pre-authorized and cleared payment cards.